This invention relates to a ring binder and more particularly, to a cover for a ring or spiral binder having combined therewith a secure storage compartment.
Ring binders of both the loose-leaf and non-opening spiral types are very efficient in holding holed or perforated pages. They are however, frequently inconvenient and difficult to use to hold loose papers, pages, booklets or multipage materials free of the ring or spiral. Such loose pages and booklets are merely placed between the cover and pages of the binder and thus, tend to be dislodged and fall out of the binder during transport. Some ring binders have been provided with pouches or envelopes to hold loose material. For example, the U.S. Pat. No. 4,519,629 to Podosek discloses a cover having a pocket open along the free edge opposite the ring spine. The cover is formed with a flap that is folded around the open edge for ultimately closing the pocket. However, this folder construction exhibits a drawback in that the contents of the pocket are free to fall out once the book is opened for use, since the flap itself opens outwardly.
In the applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 4,795,287 the cover is provided with an open half pocket for receiving flat loose papers of a size equal to the size of the cover. Access to papers held in the pocket is restricted due to the provision of a small tab in a corner of the cover opposite the pocket. This contruction leaves a large proportion of the paper visible and easy to retrieve, but is not suitable for folded papers, booklets or small sheets.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,677,376 discloses a separately formed transparent pocket for disposition in a ring binder in a similar manner to the holed paper. U.S. Pat. No. 4,516,871 discloses a similar envelope having projecting tabs and Design Patent 275,576 discloses a ring binder insert in the form of a file folder having peripheral edge flaps.
While the above-mentioned patents disclose inventions which are useful for the purposes for which they were intended, they still exhibit the drawbacks or disadvantages discussed, or simply provide inserts for ring binders which are flap type folder structures of one sort or another.
There exists, therefore, a need for a binder provided with a pouch, pocket or storage compartment which can store items which lack uniformity in dimension with the additional feature of keeping such items secure, but, at the same time, readily accessible to a user. It is another need to provide storage means as an integral part of the binder cover, so that the cover provides strength and rigidity both to the binder and to the storage compartment. The present invention fulfills such needs.